Pope Tawadros to lead funeral for victims of Coptic Church bombing

SHAFAQNA – Egypt’s Coptic Pope Tawadros II will lead on Monday the funeral procession for the victims of the Sunday bombing inside a chapel at Cairo’s main Coptic Cathedral, a church source told Al-Ahram Arabic news website on Sunday.

The procession will start at the Church of the Virgin Mary in Cairo’s Nasr City, according to the source.

Pope Tawadros II has cut short a papal visit to Greece and is on his way back to Cairo “to go directly to the site of the explosion,” another source said earlier in the day.

At least 25 people were killed and 49 injured after an explosion inside a church attached to the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo’s Abbassyia district.

Following the attack, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced that the country will observe three days of mourning.

The world’s oldest seat of Sunni Islamic learning Al-Azhar has condemned the attack.

Al-Azhar said that the targeting of houses of worship and the killing of innocents are “criminal acts that violate Islamic principles”.